According to data collated from local sources in Versova, sea-facing societies/plots are expected to add about 10 lakh sq ft of RERA carpet area for sale

Mumbai: Once a quiet fishing village of shorefront bungalows, Versova, with its low-rise, middle-class housing societies that rose in the 1980s and 1990s, is now becoming a skyscraper enclave for the ultra-rich.Along a 2km stretch from J P Road — running from Seven Bungalows bus depot to Yari Road bus depot— as many as 26 housing societies have signed redevelopment deals with some of Mumbai’s biggest builders.Many of these plots are close to the beach, and some directly touch the sea. Where four- to-seven storey buildings once defined the horizon, 25- to 35-storey luxury towers are planned. Local property dealers say they expect over 3,600 new apartments in the free sale component to flood the market in the next five years in this locality. “This translates to a huge inventory build-up of at least 120 months,’’ one of them said.The numbers reveal the scale. According to data collated from local sources, sea-facing societies/plots are expected to add about 10 lakh sq ft of RERA carpet area for sale. Existing members in these sea-touching societies are being offered extra area in the range of 50% to 70% — a 700 sq ft home can become 1,110 to 1,200 sq ft — along with corpus payments ranging from Rs 2,500 to Rs 6,000 per sq ft.In the non-sea-facing category, around 3,000 flats are in the pipeline, with about 45 lakh sq ft of RERA carpet area for sale. Here, extra area offers range from 33% to 53%, and corpus typically falls between Rs 2,500 and Rs 4,000 per sq ft.This is only the first wave. At least another 25 societies — comprising around 30 to 35 buildings — are up for redevelopment and are currently in tendering.For existing residents, the redevelopment pitch arrives wrapped in aspiration: larger homes, new amenities, modern lobbies, mechanised parking, branded finishes. But beneath the shine is a fear that Versova is building towers without building the infrastructure to support them.Architect and Versova resident Sanjeev Punjabi, argues that the area’s biggest threat is not merely vertical growth, but the sudden surge of vehicles and services it will trigger.With new links planned to improve connectivity — projects like the Coastal Road extension towards Lokhandwala Complex and further to Malad North, and the Bandra-Versova Sea Link — Punjabi warns that better access could become an “undoing” if Versova’s internal roads and junctions remain unchanged. “Thousands of cars will ply,” he cautions, shifting congestion to choke points like the Versova junction. The glamour of “Italian marble in the lobby”, he says, distracts from fundamental questions: sanitation capacity, water supply, parking spill over, and what happens once you enter Versova’s narrow street grid.Dhaval Shah of the Lokhandwala Oshiwara Citizens Association traces the construction boom to the last three years and predicts a branding shift: “Versova will be the new Bandra.” His warning is not about status but preparedness. Luxury sea-facing apartments in the new towers are commanding around Rs 1 lakh per sq ft, yet the neighbourhood, he argues, is not being upgraded in proportion to the price tags. The fear is that a premium skyline will sit on top of overstretched civic systems.Punjabi warns about towers rising above the tree canopy, leaving fewer setbacks and less open breathing space. More podiums and basements are being planned, and mechanised parking systems are becoming standard — solutions on paper that can create new choke points at entry ramps, and new maintenance headaches once societies take over.Developer Vishal Ratanghayra of Platinum Corp, who is redeveloping a Versova society, said authorities will be required to gear up the social infrastructure and civic infrastructure like healthcare, sewerage, drainage, and utilities. “Not achieving this and coupled with rapid redevelopment will lead to traffic jams, water shortages and overwhelmed sanitation systems in Versova and in surrounding areas,’’ he said.Versova’s transformation also carries a quieter loss: the thinning of memory. The area’s identity is still tied, in popular language, to Seven Bungalows — yet none of the original seven bungalows remain. They were built after the plague hit the city in 1896, when wealthy families sought a calmer edge outside the dense core. An INTACH report records their names — Talati Bungalow, Kaikei Villa, Rus Cottage, Jasbir Villa, Gulistaan, Vijay Bhawan and Shanti Niwas — and the constellation of owners that included the Maharaja of Gwalior, the Maharaja of Kutch, Dadabhai Naoroji, scholar Rustom Masani, Sorabji Talati, and families such as the Chinais and Khambattas. Coconut palms, sea and sand framed those homes. Today, the names survive largely as a label on bus depots and real estate listings.

Mumbai: A Goa woman has postponed her wedding registration after waiting months for a correction to her Mumbai birth certificate. A Bandra family fears a nephew’s Dutch residency application could be jeopardised because they have been told a digitally printed birth certificate may take up to eight months. Students headed overseas are struggling to meet admission and visa deadlines.BMC has now formally admitted it’s facing a severe bottleneck in processing old birth and death records. In a July 22 letter to the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, municipal commissioner Ashwini Bhide sought approval to appoint seven additional district registrars to speed up approvals of nearly “one crore legacy records”. The existing system is overwhelmed, says her letter.The letter, accessed by TOI, says 200–400 “Add Old Events” applications reach the district registrar every day, while nearly 1,000 applications are pending approval. Under the new Civil Registration System (CRS), every approval requires an Aadhaar-linked one time password (OTP) sent only to the district registrar and valid for 60 seconds.“It is physically not possible for the district registrar to provide this number of OTPs within 60 seconds,” the letter states.Mumbai has nearly one crore legacy birth and death records in manual and electronic formats that must be digitised under Registrar General’s new guidelines. Demand has surged as citizens require birth certificates for passports, marriages, admissions, visas, inheritance claims and other legal purposes.To ease the bottleneck, BMC has requested Centre to designate seven deputy executive health officers as additional district registrars with separate logins to process approvals. It has also sought permission from Maharashtra govt to empower all 26 medical officers of health, along with deans and chief medical officers of civic hospitals, to function as registrars.For applicants, the delays have become deeply personal.A 27-year-old woman now living in Goa said she applied in March to correct her full name on her birth certificate after being told the process would take 10 days. “My fiancé came from abroad in June, but we couldn’t register our marriage. We’ve postponed it to September and still don’t know when the correction will happen,” she said.An Andheri resident alleged that corrections made by BMC in its SAP system in 2019 are still not reflected in the new CRS portal. “BMC is not willing to honour certificates issued by itself and isn’t giving any clarity. I’ve been following up since May,” the resident said, adding that the discrepancy could create complications in inheritance matters.In another case, a Bandra West resident said his nephew in the Netherlands urgently needs a digitally printed birth certificate for permanent residency but has been asked to wait six to eight months despite seeking no corrections.Former BJP MP Kirit Somaiya, who had earlier exposed alleged irregularities in birth registrations, said the issue does not affect new registrations.“There is no problem in obtaining birth certificates for newborns within 21 days. Corrections are also possible if adequate documentary proof is submitted. The issue arises mainly with decades-old handwritten records, which need to be digitised before corrections are made,” he said.He said the digitisation process was made mandatory after the birth certificate scam he exposed in which 86,000 fraudulent certificates were reportedly issued under the guise of corrections.A BMC health department official said, “We are afraid. Our colleagues have been suspended; FIRs are being filed. Why are we being targeted?”Congress MLA Amin Patel said genuine applicants are paying the price. “Students admitted to universities abroad are the worst affected. Delays are disrupting visa processing and travel plans,” he said.Former Congress corporator Asif Zakaria alleged the process has become excessively centralised. “Earlier, certificates issued after 2002 were available from citizen facilitation centres across Mumbai,” he said. Now, applications are routed through ward offices before being sent to Central Record Centre in Parel for verification, creating delays even for records that are already digitally available.The crisis comes amid an ongoing investigation into irregularities in birth registrations. A Mumbai Police SIT is probing suspected unauthorised changes to birth records after BMC found discrepancies between corrections made in its in-house SAP system and those recorded on the official CRS portal. It suspended two medical officers and lodged an FIR alleging irregularities in birth registrations.BMC is also developing software for birth certificate applications and correction requests that will allow uploads and provide a dashboard to track applications.

The BMC initiative seeks to ensure that biodegradable waste generated by housing societies, institutions, hospitals, and commercial establishments is scientifically processed at source, while dry waste is channelled only to authorised recyclers

Mumbai: In a push to reduce the city’s dependence on landfills and long-distance transportation of garbage, the BMC has launched a decentralised waste processing mission under the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2026.As part of the initiative, the BMC has also invited Expressions of Interest (EOI) from technically qualified agencies to help Bulk Waste Generators (BWGs) set up and operate on-site waste processing systems.The initiative seeks to ensure that biodegradable waste generated by housing societies, institutions, hospitals, and commercial establishments is scientifically processed at source, while dry waste is channelled only to authorised recyclers. To encourage compliance, the BMC has announced a property tax rebate of up to 15% for housing societies that scientifically process wet waste within their premises and adhere to BMC guidelines.Civic officials said the move is aimed at reducing waste transportation, improving segregation and recycling, cutting greenhouse gas emissions and promoting a circular economy.The BMC has identified 3,177 BWGs across Mumbai, of which 2,025 have already been registered with it. Officials said 513 properties have earmarked space for installing decentralised waste processing units.Further to facilitate implementation, the BMC has floated an EOI to empanel third-party agencies that will assist societies and institutions with site assessments, technology selection, installation, operation and maintenance of waste processing systems, staff training, statutory compliance and linkage of dry waste with authorised recyclers. The civic body said all proposed technologies will undergo technical evaluation before approval.According to the EOI notice, interested agencies can procure tender documents from August 1. Queries and comments can be submitted until August 7, when a pre-bid meeting will also be held. The last date for submission of the EOI is August 14.Civic officials said the initiative if successful could significantly reduce the burden on Mumbai’s waste collection, transportation and disposal infrastructure while accelerating the city’s transition towards a circular economy.“The future of waste management lies not in transporting waste across the city, but in processing it where it is generated,” a BMC oficial said, urging housing societies, commercial establishments and institutions to participate in the initiative.

Civic officials said Rs 23.1 lakh of the total penalty amount has been recovered specifically from offenders involved in illegal dumping and unauthorised transport of construction and demolition waste

Mumbai: BMC has collected a little over Rs 70 lakh in penalties and booked 4,006 violators since the city’s new Solid Waste Management (SWM), Cleanliness and Sanitation Bye-laws came into force on April 1.The objective of the penalties was “not revenue generation, but behavioural change”, said the civic administration, adding that enforcement must become a part of daily sanitation management rather than an occasional drive.Civic officials said Rs 23.1 lakh of the total penalty amount has been recovered specifically from offenders involved in illegal dumping and unauthorised transport of construction and demolition (C&D) waste, one of the biggest contributors to recurring garbage hotspots across the city.Mumbai generates around 8,000 tonnes of C&D waste daily due to redevelopment projects, Metro construction, road concretisation and large-scale excavation works.Under the new bye-laws, dumping construction and demolition waste illegally or at unauthorised locations attracts a fine of Rs 20,000 per vehicle, while transporting construction and demolition waste without a permit Rs 25,000 per vehicle. The action has been taken by junior supervisors, who have been empowered under the 2025 bye-laws to issue penalties and enforce cleanliness regulations at the ward level.Under these bye-laws, BMC has also specified penal action for 21 types of offences, including throwing garbage on roads/lanes/footpaths/gardens/public places (Rs 500), spitting (Rs 250), bathing in open and public places (Rs 300), urinating (Rs 500), defecating (Rs 500), feeding animals or birds in open spaces and public places (Rs 500), washing utensils/clothes/any other items in public places (Rs 300), and washing vehicles (Rs 500).Recently, while reviewing the drive, municipal commissioner Ashwini Bhide directed all 25 ward offices to significantly intensify enforcement, with a focus on garbage-vulnerable locations, construction sites, markets, highways and other public places.Under the fresh directions, ward teams have been asked to step up surveillance and take strict action against illegal dumping of garbage and C&D waste, open dumping on roads and footpaths, repeat offenders creating chronic garbage spots, unauthorised transport of construction debris and commercial establishments violating the SWM bye-laws.The civic administration expects stricter field supervision and sustained penalties to reduce recurring dumping points and improve visible cleanliness across Mumbai. Officials have also been instructed to identify habitual offenders and initiate stronger action under the provisions of the new bye-laws.The SWM Bye-laws, 2025 replaced the earlier enforcement framework and gave ward-level officials greater powers to penalise violations related to littering, waste segregation, illegal dumping and sanitation-related public nuisance.

MUMBAI: Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray on Saturday wrote to Maharashtra Director General of Police (DGP) Rashmi Shukla, seeking clarity on how the state government’s decision to withdraw cases against students and youths who participated in protests would be implemented.In his letter, Thackeray referred to the Maharashtra Home Department’s earlier order directing the withdrawal, through due legal process, of cases registered against students, youths and others who took part in protests across the state in support of the agitation held at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar.While welcoming the government’s decision, Thackeray said there was uncertainty over its implementation, as many students were still receiving police notices and several investigations and court proceedings were continuing.“We welcome this decision. However, we are continuously being contacted by numerous students, parents, lawyers and citizens from across the state, and confusion has arisen regarding how the actual implementation of this decision will take place. Many students are still receiving police notices, investigations are ongoing in some cases, and in many places, cases are pending in courts,” the letter stated.Seeking clarity, Thackeray asked whether the Home Department’s order would apply to all FIRs, investigations and pending cases related to the student protests across Maharashtra.He also sought clarification on whether ongoing investigations and penal action under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and other applicable laws would be immediately stayed. In addition, he asked whether police stations would begin the process of withdrawing cases on their own or whether students and their lawyers would have to file separate applications.The Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA also sought details on the procedure for withdrawing cases pending before courts, including whether applications would be filed through public prosecutors under the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), and whether the government had fixed any timeline for completing the process.Thackeray further asked whether Maharashtra Police had issued a uniform Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) or circular to all police commissioners, superintendents of police and police stations to ensure consistent implementation of the government’s decision. He urged that such instructions be made public.He also sought clarification on the status of students who continue to face arrest, interrogation, attendance requirements or other police action despite the government’s announcement.“It is extremely essential that the decision taken by the government does not remain merely on paper and is implemented uniformly and effectively across the entire state. The unnecessary impact of criminal cases should not affect the educational, professional and social future of students protesting through democratic means,” he said in the letter.Thackeray urged the DGP to issue immediate clarifications, direct all police authorities to implement the decision uniformly across Maharashtra and place the instructions in the public domain.

Mumbai: The state’s anti-conversion law, called the Maharashtra Freedom of Religion Act, 2026, is now in force in the state after being published in the official gazette on receiving the assent of President Droupadi Murmu.Officials said the Act was published in the official gazette on July 30 and came into force on the same date. “Legal action may now be initiated in cases involving unlawful religious conversion in the state strictly in accordance with the provisions of the new Act,” a senior official said.The legislation was passed by the legislature during the budget session in March before being sent to the governor and then the President for assent.The Act prohibits religious conversions carried out through coercion, fraud, allurement, misrepresentation or under the promise of marriage. It mandates imprisonment of up to seven years for violations, rising to 10 years for repeat offenders.It mandates a 60-day prior notice to the district magistrate before conversion, allowing complaints by parents, siblings and other relatives of the convert.The bill had been opposed by the Congress, NCP SP, Samajwadi party and CPI (M) in the assembly but was supported by the SS UBT.Congress MLAs had argued in the state assembly that the legislation was unconstitutional and an infringement on the right to privacy. The Samajwadi Party held that it was targeted at a particular community. The Opposition had wanted the legislation to be referred to a joint select committee.Defending the legislation, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had said it was intended to curb forced or fraudulent religious conversions and was not aimed at voluntary conversions or interfaith marriages.At least 12 other states already have an anti-conversion legislation in place, including Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Chhatisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh. Also, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Haryana and Rajasthan.